Andy Najar, the defender who braved a lengthy journey from Honduras to the U.S. as a teenager, starred in D.C. United’s youth academy and then won the league’s rookie of the year award in 2010—gone.

Kei Kamara, the charismatic forward whose improved play and relationship with Sporting Kansas City fans reflected the growing bond between a region and its revitalized soccer club—gone.

Philadelphia Union supporters, eager for some stability following a season of upheaval, said goodbye to defender Carlos Valdés, the club captain. Seattle Sounders striker Fredy Montero—by far the leading scorer in the four-year history of the league’s most popular club—will join Valdés on loan in Colombia. Throw in SKC midfield anchor Roger Espinoza, who left for the English Premier League as a free agent, and newly-unveiled Paris Saint-Germain icon David Beckham, and MLS has endured an almost unprecedented drain of marketable talent this winter.

The departures might raise concerns about the league’s place in the global pecking order, its ambition or the nature of the single-entity setup that might subvert the interests of an individual club.

But in reality, they’re all part of MLS’ slow-growth plan.

“The fact that we are developing players that are coveted by teams in the Premier League is a positive,” MLS executive vice president Todd Durbin told Sporting News. “It demonstrates that young players playing in our league are getting the training they need and getting the same type of opportunities their counterparts are having in the rest of the world.

“There is certainly much more demand for players in our league than there was a few years back. I don’t think there’s any question about that. It’s a function of the players going over and being successful.”

MLS has survived the loss of Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra and Tim Howard. And it will survive the loss of Shea, Najar and the rest.

That’s in large part because the revenue produced by their sale represents a significant boost to an MLS club’s purchasing power. This year, each team’s salary budget (not including funds spent on designated players or the allocation money apportioned by the league) will be $2.95 million. FC Dallas netted about $2.6 million from Shea’s transfer alone. Clubs are required to funnel that additional windfall back into the on-field product, either by bolstering the current roster or investing in player development.

Either way, over time, the money coming in will fuel the league’s slow-but-steady growth model and help teams improve.

Belief in that model requires patience, which isn’t always the easiest thing to muster for a fan whose team just parted ways with one of its better players. But the teams agree that it’s the right way to do business.

“It’s the normal course of business of most soccer clubs in the world,” said D.C. United GM Dave Kasper, who negotiated Najar’s transfer to Belgian club Anderlecht. “You’re going to bring in new players, and every year you’re going to have players who move.

“I think for every case of someone who really wants to go to Europe, you can talk about players like Landon Donovan or Chris Pontius who made the decision to enter into a long-term contract, who want to stay here. We have a good league and there are plenty of players who want to live in the United States, work in the United States and be a part of Major League Soccer.”

Indeed, among the players named to the league’s Best 11 the past three years, only Shea, Beckham and the retired Kasey Keller no longer are in MLS.

Durbin also notes that there tend to be more departures than arrivals during the winter window. Most European contracts expire in the summer, which is when MLS clubs usually have more luck in the market.

Durbin and Kasper both moved to dispel the notion that the league, which owns players’ rights, locks horns with its clubs during transfer negotiations. Word leaked during Stoke City’s pursuit of both Shea and former Houston Dynamo defender Geoff Cameron that MLS officials vetoed bids accepted by their teams.

Both Durbin and Kasper said rejecting an offer was all part of the negotiating process and the United GM stressed, “When a club really wants to make something happen, the league is going to be supportive.”

The three-party negotiation might even help—it allows an MLS club to blame the league office for a potential rejection and avoid souring further negotiations with the foreign suitor.

Among the most famous rejected offers in MLS history was the January 2008 bid from England’s Preston North End for New England Revolution striker Taylor Twellman. The ’05 MLS MVP wanted to make the move, and the $2.5-$3 million offer certainly compares well to the fees paid for Shea and Najar (reportedly $3 million). But the Revolution wouldn’t part with their leading scorer and later that year he sustained the concussion that ultimately ended his career.

Twellman, now an ESPN analyst, told Sporting News that he believes his own misfortune taught MLS clubs a lesson—strike while the iron is hot and sell.

Parting with known quantities like Shea or Najar does put the onus back on clubs to spend wisely. But Twellman argued that there’s a trend toward more autonomy in MLS—“Montero and Valdés, those loans, I don’t think those are happening five years ago,” he said—and that clubs now are better equipped to make the most of their increased purchasing power.

Players like Pontius or MLS MVP Chris Wondolowski can be rewarded with raises that weren’t available in Twellman’s day. In addition, MLS academies are starting to produce increasingly competitive players at home (Najar is the first academy product to seal a permanent transfer to Europe), while the rising demand in MLS talent from bigger European clubs will prove enticing to younger foreign players, especially from the Americas.

The global transfer market fuels all of it.

“If we lose players after four or five years in the league, that’s a feather in our cap,” Twellman said. “You lose Cameron, who’s a third-round pick and now he starts at right back at Stoke? Obviously, we’re doing something right.”

Durbin stressed the importance of the bigger picture. He reiterated the league’s ambition to become one of the best in the world by 2022, meaning it will be considered a destination rather than a stepping stone. To accomplish that, however, it needs the money that developing and selling players can provide.

“This is a dynamic that every soccer team around the world faces,” Durbin said. “How do I manage our team year after year within our budget? If I transfer the right player, then I have the resources to sign two or three players that hopefully are going to make my team better or more valuable in the long term.

“It is certainly our belief that while we think Andy and Brek are two very good players, that the quality of both Dallas and D.C. will be better at the end of this.”

The journey to reach that end is long but clear.

“I’m all about slow growth because I want this league to be around for 100 years,” Twellman told Sporting News. “This notion from fans and some groups of ‘now, now, now,’ this immediate gratification kind of thing, I’m sorry.

“When I came into this league, we lost Miami and Tampa. We were playing in Naperville (a small stadium in suburban Chicago). Now, this league is actually a legit league and in order for us to make the next step I firmly believe these players leaving will open the door for whoever that next guy is going to be. And if they’re successful in Europe, that builds the MLS brand that much more.”